Blood Test Timescales

[MichaelJH]

Does anyone know how long different blood tests take to turn around? A week ago I had a set of blood tests done. I want convinced the nurse was not paying full attention. By COB Thursday I had (online) U&Es, LFT, Bone Profile and CRP (not requested but raised). Not there at15:00 today were HbA1c, FBC and PSA. Anyway I decided to enquire about them and was told they take a little longer. Is this true? Last year a nurse (to the annoyances of the diabetes lead) did the wrong tests and I am wondering if this has happened again, and the person I spoke to is covering up!

[Milkfairy Heart Star]

Hello,Where do you access your blood results?

I use the hospital's Patient Portal.

I had HbA1c, Full blood count, cholesterol levels, U&Es and CRP blood test.

I could view all the results on the portal within a week.

You can ask which blood tests were requested and by whom.

[MichaelJH Heart Star in reply to Milkfairy]

I can see the request online and HbA1c, FBC and PSA.were included. When i checked on the status of a prescription request a little later the HbA1c had magically appeared.

[gilreid1]

my health centre has a form you take to clinic has a tic box on when results are required. Ranging from next day, one week , non urgent. This is filled in by GP

[Jalia]

I guess it depends whereabouts you live but here on the south east coast of England my results were all back to read within 24/36 hours. They have always been very quick

[benjijen]

I have mine taken at the GP surgery. I view them on NHS app or Patient Access. Usually there within 24hours. Although I did have to wait for a few days for some during the height of that which can't be said!

[francesw47]

Hi Michael. It varies I think. I've had bloods done at the GP surgery and back within 24 hours, and on last occasion it took approx 10 days for all results to come back. First I knew was a text from the surgery telling me they had booked an apt with a GP for the next day.....imagine! Turns out there were problems with one of the tests (low sodium) and the advice from path lab on the results sheet was a f2f GP apt to discuss. Phone the surgery? For what its worth, I accessed mine before I saw Dr on NHS app so I knew what he wanted to discuss.

[Turnipgirl in reply to francesw47]

Thing is if anything looks nasty on a blood test they will contact you right away!

[MichaelJH Heart Star in reply to Turnipgirl]

On one occasion I only found out when I asked a few weeks later!

[CyclingTime]

For multiple tests like that normally two weeks at mine

[MichaelJH Heart Star in reply to CyclingTime]

That's a long time. The only ones that take longer to my knowledge are cultures from wound swabs, UTIs, etc.

[BobbyB1962]

Probably varies across the country. I'm in the South East and my results have consistently been available online within 48hrs over the last couple of years

[Turnipgirl]

What I do is give them a week before I get in contact with them for results as if there's anything nasty they will contact me right away is my take on things!

The surgery did say to me allow a couple of days at the earliest to ring for results which is fair enough but I allow a week before I get in contact just in case there's been a delay with them as that can happen.

[Jacey15]

I would expect them all to have been processed by the lab by now. FBC have to be done within 24 hours or they degrade.

[Maisie2014]

When I worked at the hospital we used to tell patients 10 days but I could get mine the same day. I only ever had the usual ones though. Now I’m a heartie I can usually access my results within 2/3 days.

[MelB51]

Having worked in Haematology for a long time, I can tell you that blood tests are very quick to perform usually. A FBC is performed by introducing the sample to an automatic analyser and takes less than a minute to complete. The results are checked by a senior member of staff in case they want to look at a blood film for example but once signed off the delay is purely due to reporting! I would be chasing this up if I were you!!

[Scho1]

Some bloods can take longer to analyse whilst others can be back in a couple of hours.

I recently had a full blood screen and some took 2 weeks for the results. The consultant did explain this to me prior.

[Turnipgirl in reply to Scho1]

If they don't say when to expect your results then ask them is what I do.

[Truffles2]

Different blood tests take different times so they don’t always come back all at the same time. If I have my blood tests on Friday I’m getting a call from my doctors by Monday if anything is amiss

[Bramley01]

Yes it is probably true, depends on which blood tests are requested and also the work load of the path lab

[MichaelJH Heart Star]

The HbA1c appeared shortly after I posted. Pleased about a 10% reduction due to getting Libre after four years of asking and excuses! Will check for FBC and PSA in a while and ring up this afternoon if not there!